[[!template id=project
title="Secure-PLT - supporting new PLT formats on alpha"
contact="""
[tech-userlevel](mailto:tech-userlevel@NetBSD.org)
"""
mentors="""
[Christos Zoulas](mailto:christos@NetBSD.org)
"""
category="userland"
difficulty="medium"
duration="3 months"
description="""
Currently kernels with options PAX_MPROTECT can not execute dynamically linked binaries on most RISC architectures, because the PLT format defined by the ABI of these architectures uses self-modifying code.
New binutils versions have introduced a different PLT format (enabled with --secureplt) for alpha and powerpc.
This project (for alpha) is to add support for the new PLT formats introduced in binutils 2.17 and gcc4.1 This will require changes to the dynamic loader (ld.elf_so), various assembly headers, and library files.
Support for both the old and new formats in the same invocation will be required.
For all architectures we can improve security by implementing [relro](http://tk-blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/relro-not-so-well-known-memory.html).
"""
]]
[[!tag gsoc]]